“The Government will be turning to various international organisations because it regards it as unacceptable and intolerable that the European Parliament’s ruling in attack of Hungary absolves a man who was convicted of terrorism”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at a press conference in Budapest on Monday.

“Following the closure of the Hungarian-Serbian border, illegal immigrants led by Ahmed H. launched an attack on Hungarian police, who they bombarded for hours with stones, pieces of concrete and bottles”, the Foreign Minister said. “The 17 May EP ruling against Hungary exonerated this man, meaning it took a stance in support of a terrorist and against the attacked police officers and Hungary in a period in which Europe is facing a more serious threat of terrorism than ever before”, he added.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, the Hungarian Government will be turning to four international forums, asking the UN working group responsible for implementing counter-terrorism measures, the Council of Europe’s commission for counter-terrorism activities, the OSCE’s counter-terrorism unit and NATO’s counter-terrorism section and division responsible for handling new security challenges to investigate the EP ruling concerning to what extent it increases the threat of terrorism and encourages people who are planning to commit acts of terrorism in Europe.

“The EP is exonerating this terrorist at a time when all European politics should be aimed at restoring public safety and when NATO’s most important target is also the fight against terrorism, and it is doing so after Paris, Brussels, Nice, London and Manchester have all had to suffer terrorist attacks in recent years”, the Minister stressed.

“The EP ruling claims that the man wanted to calm the situation and called the stones that Ahmed H. threw at police ‘extremely unsophisticated’ objects”, he noted.

In reply to a question concerning the speech given by German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend, Mr. Szijjártó said. “The political changes that have occurred in the United States are necessarily also affecting the political standpoints of the world’s other major powers”, adding that he agreed with the statement according to which Europe must take its fate into its own hands, because in his view the European pillar of the transatlantic community must be reinforced in the interests of European security, and that from an economic perspective the EU must conclude the free trade agreements that will balance out the losses it has suffered within the field of economic competitiveness in the face of both China and the United States.

According to Mr. Szijjártó, “If the words of the German Chancellor are to be understood as meaning that we should expect a Europe policy that is more determined with regard to security policy and economic policy, then that is something that we welcome, but we also believe that close cooperation with the United States will also be needed, as has been the case so far, both with relation to the fight against terrorism and the economy”.

“We shouldn’t cry about the fact” that the United States wants to practice an economic policy that is more patriotic than ever before, but instead Europe should finally also “get energised”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)